DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA ● REG.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNI REGN. NO. 1543/57 JOURNALISM OF COURAGE SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2024, MUMBAI, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES `5.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 London Labour Landslide Govt, NTA oppose NEET AFFIDAVITS FILED AHEAD OF JULY 8 HEARING 06/07/2024 98 retest, tell SC honest candidates will be hit 126 155 76 Absence of any large-scale breach of confidentiality: Education Ministry BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY ANANTHAKRISHNAN G & RITIKA CHOPRA NEW DELHI, JULY 5 Britain’s new Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria outside 10, Downing Street in London on Friday. Reuters HARIKISHAN SHARMA & AMRITA NAYAK DUTTA NEW DELHI, JULY 5 FROM DEVELOPING metrics to encourage competition among states in governance reforms to identifyingoneimpactfulproject that needs to be commissioned andonegroundedduringthefirst 100 days; from reducing the citizen’s compliance burden and pushing women-led development to revamping Ministry websites to make them more user-friendly — Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a 16point"directive"toSecretariesat the Centre, The Indian Express has learnt. These directions came during the PM’s interaction with SecretariesonJune29,hisfirst in the NDA’s third term. Two days later, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba wrote to all Secretaries to “initiate immediate action” based on these. Among the directions, the Prime Minister has asked the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 BIG PICTURE PAGE 11 BABA’S BUSINESS THE GODMAN & HIS EMPIRE WHO IS SURAJ PAL ALIAS BHOLEY BABA PAGE 1 ANCHOR Starmer is UK’s new PM: Past chill, Delhi cautious Will deliver change... as it warms to Labour rebuild faith in politics realism, push on FTA KYLIE MACLELLAN, WILLIAM JAMES & SARAH YOUNG LONDON, JULY 5 BRITAIN'S NEW Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged on Friday to use his massive electoral majoritytorebuildthecountry,saying he wanted to take the heat out of politics after years of upheaval and strife. Standing outside his new office and residence at Number 10 Downing Street, Starmer acknowledged the scale of the challenge after his party's landslide victory in a parliamentary election that ended 14 years of often tumultuous Conservative government. He warned that any improvements would take time, and he would need to first rebuild faith in politics. “This lack of trust canonly behealed by actions,notwords.Iknowthat,”he said.“WhetheryouvotedLabour CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 FULL COVERAGE PAGE 14 Modi congratulates Starmer on victory, praises Sunak for deepening ties SHUBHAJIT ROY & RAVI DUTTA MISHRA NEW DELHI, JULY 5 the newly elected leader on the “remarkablevictory”andsaidhe looked forward to “positive and constructive collaboration” to further strengthen bilateral ties. “Heartiestcongratulations and best wishes to ● @Keir_Starmer on the remarkable victory in the UK general elections. I look forward to our positive and E WITHIN HOURS of the Labour Party, led by Keir Starmer, sweeping the polls in the United Kingdom ending 14 years of Conservative Party-ruled government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated EXPLAINED Metrics for reforms, easing compliance burden: PM’s plan to Secys CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Mumbai Police close case against MP who joined Shinde Sena SAGAR RAJPUT MUMBAI, JULY 5 JUST FOUR months after Ravindra Waikar moved from Sena UBT to the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde, and won the Mumbai North West Lok Sabha seat, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police filedaclosurereportinacaseregistered against him, his wife Manisha, and four associates. The Mumbai Police registered an FIR on September 14, 2023, based on a complaint by a Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation(BMC)engineerthat Waikar used a plot of land reserved for a public garden to construct a hotel. Now, in a C-summary report submitted to the court on Ravindra Waikar, MP, Mumbai North West Thursday, the EOW said the complaint filed on behalf of the BMC by sub-engineer Santosh Mandavkar was based on “incomplete information and misunderstanding”. A C-summary report is filed in cases where the FIRisfoundtobebasedonamistake of fact, or when the offence is of a civil nature. “We are waiting for further direction on our submission,” said a police officer, who did not wanttobenamed.“Afterrecording the statements of the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EXPRESSINGITSunwillingnessto conduct the NEET-UG examinationagain,theCentrehastoldthe Supreme Court that “scrapping the exam in entirety would seriouslyjeopardisethelakhsofhonest candidates who attempted the question paper in 2024”. In an affidavit filed Thursday in the top court — it is set to take up on July 8 a clutch of petitions alleging exam paper leak and irregularities in the conduct of the NEET-UG on May 5 and demands for a retest — the Education Ministry makes no mention of a paper leak, only acknowledgingthat“somealleged instancesof irregularities/cheating/ impersonation/ malpractices during the conduct of NEET(UG) 2024 Examination have been reported”. In a separate affidavit, also filed Thursday, the National Testing Agency echoed the Ministry stand. It said the NEETUG examination process “is not vitiated and the results do not deserve to be set aside as career prospects of lakhs of students who performed well on their own merits, cannot be jeopardisedonaccountof fewsporadic At a protest over alleged irregularities in NEET in Lucknow. PTI file and scattered instances of unfair means attempted by an identifiable number of persons at identifiedplaceswhichareminiscule and insignificant in the context of very large number of meritorious candidates who have performed well”. The Ministry, in its affidavit, statedthat“intheabsenceof any proof of any large-scale breach of confidentiality in a pan-India examination, it would not be rational to scrap the entire examination”. “It is submitted that in any examination there are competingrightsthathavebeencreated whereby the interests of a large number of students who have taken the examination without adopting any alleged unfair means must not also be jeopardised,” it said. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Change in NEET-PG: Two shifts on Aug 11, only at TCS centres ANONNA DUTT NEW DELHI, JULY 5 THE NATIONAL Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences announced Friday that NEET-PG2024,thequalifyingexamination for postgraduate medical courses which was postponed last month, will be conductedonAugust11.Thetest, the NBEMS said, will be conducted in two shifts and the scores of the candidates will be normalised. As the NBEMS announced the date of the examination, officials said it will be conducted only at TCS iON centres and not outsourced centres. This is the first time that the test will be conducted in two batches. Sources said this will ensure that the examination is conducted in fewer centres. “There has been an increase in the number of students appearing for the paper over the years. To ensure that the examination is completely secure and CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Unfair practices in competitive exams: Maharashtra Bill proposes 5 yrs in jail ALOK DESHPANDE MUMBAI, JULY 5 THE MAHARASHTRA government on Friday introduced a bill to prevent the use of unfair means in competitive exams, with a provision of imprisonment for up to five years. “At present, there is no specificsubstantive lawto dealwith unfair means adopted or offencescommittedbyvariousentities involved in the conduct of competitive examinations. Therefore, it is imperative that theelementsthatexploitvulnerabilities of examination system are identified and effectively dealt with by a comprehensive state legislation,” the statement of objects and reasons said. The Bill was tabled in the Maharashtra Assembly by minister Shambhuraj Desai. The objective of the Maharashtra Competitive Examination (Preventionof UnfairMeans)Act, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Bhagabati Mondal’s grandson was allegedly lynched. Partha Paul Bengal hit by lynchings CPM Kerala review flags linked to theft rumours cadre arrogance, BJP rise RAVIK BHATTACHARYA & JOYPRAKASH DAS KOLKATA, NORTH 24 PARGANAS, JULY 5 WHEN 75-YEAR-OLD Bhagabati Mondal first saw her grandson Prasen (26) tied to a tree close to the local primary health centre at Polenite in West Bengal’s Bidhannagar, she hardly recognisedhim.Bloodiedandbruised, he was slumped over. Around him stood four local residents, allegedly still beating him up. “I begged them to stop andsparehim,buttheycontinued to whip him with a tree branch. I rushedtocallneighbours.WhenI returned, he was dead,” she says. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 MANOJ C G NEW DELHI, JULY 5 A MONTH after the CPI(M)-led LDF suffered a severe drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections in Kerala, the party’s central leadership has identified the “erosion” of a section of its vote base in favour of the BJP as one of the most serious issues facing it. The Left failed to pay “sufficient attention” to this, a review of the LokSabharesultsbytheCPI(M)’s Central Committee says. Thereportalsoblames“arrogant behaviour” of cadres from “top to bottom” as well as corruption at all levels, saying these were “alienating” the people CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE EXPRESS INTERVIEW ‘LOST IN 2019 TOO, BUT THIS TIME BJP HAS GROWN IN KERALA…’ BINOY VISWAM, CPI LEADER WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM Gujarat’s curious case of a ‘bootlegger’, Instagram cop, car chase GOPAL KATESHIYA RAJKOT, JULY 5 IN A photograph clicked at Bhachau police station in Gujarat’s Kutch in the early hours of July 1, the arrested duo stoodstaringatthecamera,their hands folded behind them. The alleged bootlegger, in a blue button-down shirt, and his ‘accomplice’, Head Constable Nita Chaudhary, 34, wearing a white T-shirt and yellow pants, and witha hintof a smileon herface. The events that followed the dramatic chase and arrest of Chaudhary, Head Constable of Gujarat’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID), and YuvrajsinhJadeja,30,whohas15 cases of alleged bootlegging and one attempt to murder case registered against him at Bhachau police station, have kept the Gujarat Police busy. Allthis,whileitgrappleswith a new problem: Chaudhary’s popularity on social media. “Since her arrest, her Instagram followers have more than doubled and gone past 1 lakh,” says a police officer. Chaudhary’s bio on Instagramdescribes her asan “artist” and has reels of her lip- syncingtopopularnumbers.The reels also feature an SUV, which the police say was the one she and Jadeja were in when they were intercepted on June 30. According to an FIR registered that night, a joint team from the Bhachau police station and the Kutch East police crime branch received a tip-off that Jadeja, wanted in four cases registered under Gujarat Prohibition Act, was in an SUV headed towards Gandhidham town. The team started tailing the car around 6.30 pm near Samakhiari, a village on NH 41. Minutes later, they intercepted A still from a reel posted on Instagram account of Head Constable Nita Chaudhary. Instagram/Chaudharinita the SUV under a railway overbridge, some 22 km from Samakhiari. At the wheel, the policesay,wasJadeja,whiletheir colleague Chaudhary, attached to the Gandhidham CID (crime), was in the passenger seat. The police say more drama ensued since Jadeja, despite repeated directions from the police, neither came out of the car nor did he lower the SUV’s window.Thepoliceeventuallybroke the window and detained him, adds the FIR. The police arrested the duo and, based on Bhachau police sub-inspector Dineshkumar Zala’s complaint, filed a case under IPC sections related to attempt to murder, among others. The police also recovered from the SUV 16 bottles of Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL)andtwobeercans,cumulatively worth Rs 1,880. They filed another case, under the Gujarat Prohibition Act, against the two. On July 2, a local Bhachau court rejected the police plea seeking the duo’s remand in the attempt to murder case andsent them to judicialcustody instead. The next day, the magisterial court granted Chaudhary bail in that case. Before she could walk outof jail,thepolicetookherinto custody after securing a transfer warrant on July 3, and arrested her and Jadeja in the prohibition case. The duo are now lodged in police custody. The Home Department has since suspendedChaudharyfromservice. The police said the vehicle in which Chaudhary and Jadeja weretravellingdidn’thavearegistration plate and was registered in the name of a local journalist. OnhowaCID(crime)constable ended up in a car being driven by an alleged bootlegger, the officer said, “During interrogation, Chaudhary said that she and Jadeja came in contact via Instagram and Facebook around six months ago and became friends.” JadejaisaresidentofJuniMoti Chirai,avillageontheoutskirtsof Bhachautown,whileChaudhary belongs to Moriya village in Banaskantha district bordering Rajasthan.Chaudharyismarried to Virsang Bhutadiya, the former sarpanchofBadarpura(Bhutedi), a village adjoining Moriya. The eldestoffoursiblings,herfatheris a farmer in Moriya. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2